Law No. 3, the Family Code, 8 January 1978
Annual Review of Population Law 16: 60 414-8
1989
ISSN/ISBN: 0364-3417 PMID: 12344483 Document Number: 383839
This document contains a summary of the Family Code adopted by the Yemen Arab Republic on 8 January 1978. Chapter 1 deals with the format of the marriage ceremony and the contract of marriage. Boys under the age of 15 years may not marry. A female child may marry if her consent is given, but the marriage may not be consummated until she reaches the age of 16 and is able to sustain intercourse. Chapter 3 lists the family members who may not marry each other as well as other prohibitions including marriage to a breast-feeding woman, to a woman of a nonscriptural religion, to an Islamic apostate, or to someone currently married, accused of adultery, in the process of divorce, on a pilgrimage, of undetermined sex, or married to a missing person. Men may not take more than four wives, and a Muslim woman may not marry a non-Muslim. Chapter 3 also provides details of requirements for the support of children and spouses and outlines the requirements of a wife to obey her husband as well as the conditions under which a wife may leave her house and those in which a wife is considered a runaway. The Family Code follows the teachings of Islam regarding the illegality of a father to acknowledge a child born as a result of adultery and the denial of adoption. Abandoned children are to be cared for by the person who finds them or as established by a court. Book 2 of the Family law deals with annulment and divorce. Annulment requires the decision of a court and may be sought on such grounds as apostasy and alcoholism. Divorce is the husband's right, but a wife may have this right if it was written into her marriage contract. A divorce may be revocable if the pronouncement of divorce was made only two times within a 90-day period. A pronouncement made three times makes divorce immediate.